Reader. Reviser.

Category: Uncategorized

I posted a while back about Italian surnames as sources for fantasy character names – a recent discovery is Scannagatti (“Cat Killer”). Italian places are a source of inspiration as well, particularly for Early Medieval-style fantasy settings. At the moment, we are visiting the in-laws in the region of Lunigiana, which covers parts of Tuscany… Continue reading Living the Middle Ages

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ITALIAN SURNAMES: an untapped fantasy resource. I am reading Michael R. Fletcher‘s Grimdark novel Beyond Redemption which converts German words into names because they sound dark and grim to English speakers. Italian – usually thought rightly as a beautiful language – is my second language. If you know what they mean, many Italian surnames are really… Continue reading Italian Fantasy Names

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Following the recent success of the Fyre Festival musical extravaganza, we are pleased to give advance notice of FyreCon 1 in 2018, an exclusive science fiction and fantasy convention! -Luxury accommodation in GRRM’s beard -Famous authors may or may not be present -Welcome packs may or may not include rare signed editions -An opportunity to… Continue reading FyreCon: Putting the “Con” back in “Con”!

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‘The roots come out of the earth, fighting back against mankind’s concrete prisons. As if the soul of the world were pouring out again.’ These days, a lot is rightly said about the damage done by industrialized human society to the Earth’s environment. Global warming is melting the world’s ice caps; in time, this will… Continue reading Death Drive, Life Drive

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Adolescence is rightly considered one of the key periods of human life. The young person has to find out for themselves who they are and what they will become. All this while questioning the values and family they grew up with and re-evaluating their relationship to their peer group, who are going through the same… Continue reading Post-Apocalyptic Walkabout

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Australia is a huge country (sixth biggest in the world) with a small population for its size (just over 20 million people). The state I come from and have written about, Western Australia, takes up one third of the country and has a population of 2.5 million, more than half of whom live in and… Continue reading Land of Changes

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It had been raining that day and the forest was dark. He could still smell the strong eucalyptus scent rising off the huge karri trees that stood like crying gods dripping tears on the little lost humans far below. The south western corner of Western Australia, where I grew up, is home to some unique… Continue reading Tree Gods Dripping Tears